*Spoilers ahead*
Better late than never to start sharing my thoughts on Fox’s new hit musical drama, as I’m now one of many who find the Lyons fascinating. This week follows Andre’s struggles after being checked into the hospital following another breakdown, forcing him to miss the long anticipated IPO signing for Empire Records. As it turns out, Lucious refused to let Andre’s bipolar disorder become known to the public at large out of fear of its effect on the family’s image. Alongside arguably J.R Ewing, there’s a bit of Joe Jackson in the Lucious character in how he conducts business.
Empire has a lot of poignant and touching moments for a show that’s marketed so heavily around family strife and backstabbing, and here it’s in the form of Jamal and Hakeem’s concern for Andre, despite each of them dealing with their own matters. Jamal wants to be more of a father to Lola and help discover the source of her “scary bird” nightmares, while Hakeem seeks Camilla’s help in boosting his career. Further proving my point, Lucious doesn’t care much for Camilla’s ideas and writes her a check in the hope she’ll leave Hakeem, but Cammy spikes Lucious verbally and rips it to shreds.
Representing Andre at the IPO while he recovers with a musical therapist named Michelle (Jennifer Hudson, playing…..well, Jennifer Hudson basically), Rhonda isn’t too pleased to find that Lucious had slashed a quarter off everyone else’s shares to give to Cookie, on top of a cushy A&R position in the hopes of making her an ally and not an adversary. It turns out Cookie has a limited amount of time to be angry about it after Vernon, strung out on drugs and mad after being shut out of the deal by Lucious, brings Olivia (Raven-Symone) to the mansion.
She’s accompanied by her boyfriend Reg, who is not only the source of Lola’s nightmares, but is also completely nuts. Lucious drops a bombshell in order to diffuse the situation, but that proves to be unnecessary as Malcolm rushes in and makes Reg’s head go asplodey. After Olivia and Lola bid a heartfelt goodbye to the Lyon brothers, Lucious makes a move on Cookie, but she’s too preoccupied with the family’s heroic security guard as we head towards the season finale after a crazy but fun episode.
Odds and Ends
- Hakeem’s Camilla backed rap was decent, and judging by the lyrics I guess he’s a bit of a cougar chaser. He’s definitely the “Alvin” between the three siblings.
- Nothing wrong with the main plot, but I would have liked a little more time with Andre and Michelle, they had a pretty good ballad.
- The two brothers’ little lullaby to Lola, I swear it will give you a diabetic heart attack with its sweetness. Also apparently Yazz and Jussie Smollet are going to be on Idol soon, which might get me to watch it again- I haven’t been interested since Adam Lambert’s run.
- Lucious with Olivia….*shudders* I did not need that mental image.
If you wanna talk about the show, hit me up at jrseals1@gmail.com or https://twitter.com/radioclash5150!